The short answer: ten years, or fifteen
Rhode Island has no seven-year wait for a felony conviction. The waits are:
- One felony, as a first offender: ten years from the completion of your sentence.
- Two, three or four felonies: fifteen years from the completion of your last sentence, under the 2026 law.
- Five or more felonies: no expungement path.
When the felony clock starts
The wait runs "from the date of the completion of his or her sentence," not from the day you were sentenced or the day of the arrest.
The sentence is complete when all of it is finished: prison served, probation closed, parole done, every condition met. A felony with a year to serve and five years of probation behind it starts counting when that probation closes.
Money matters too. Fines, fees, costs, assessments and restitution still owed on the case will stop the motion unless the court reduced or waived them.
The clean period runs alongside it
Waiting is not enough. In the ten years before you file (one felony) or fifteen (two to four), you must not have been convicted of or arrested for any felony or misdemeanor, and no criminal case can be pending against you.
A civil traffic violation or a Traffic Tribunal adjudication is neither a felony nor a misdemeanor, and does not break the clean period.
Felony cases that do not wait at all
Some felony cases never reach the ten- or fifteen-year clock:
- A deferred sentence. You can move to expunge it "upon its completion," once the court finds you complied with the deferral agreement. The one absolute bar is a crime of violence. See deferred sentences.
- A dismissal, a not-guilty verdict, a no true bill or a no information. That is not a conviction, and the motion is to seal, not expunge. Your prior record does not affect it, and no waiting period applies (a domestic violence case has its own rule). See sealing a dismissed charge.
- A felony amended down to a misdemeanor. The case is a misdemeanor and runs on the five-year track. See first offenders.
What closes the felony path no matter how long you wait
- A conviction for a crime of violence, on either path.
- On the two-to-four-felony path, an offense on the 2026 list of other prohibited offenses, which includes every offense in the weapons chapter, and any DUI, chemical-test refusal or domestic violence offense.
- A pending criminal case anywhere.
- On the two-to-four-felony path, a prior successful expungement on that path: the felonies left out of a granted motion stay.
If your record has more than felonies on it
Which path you are on depends on your whole record, not just the felony. A prior conviction or probation of any kind takes you out of first-offender status. The eligibility checker asks the questions in the order the statute does and tells you which subsection applies.
The law behind this page
- First-offender path and the crime-of-violence bar: R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-2(a). Who is a first offender: § 12-1.3-1(3).
- Ten years for a felony: § 12-1.3-2(e).
- Two to four felonies, the exclusions and the one-grant rule: § 12-1.3-2(c). Fifteen years from the last sentence: § 12-1.3-2(h). Both as amended by P.L. 2026 (H 7079 Sub A / S 3036 Sub A).
- The clean periods, nothing pending, and the unpaid-money bar: § 12-1.3-3(b)(1).
- Deferred sentences: § 12-1.3-2(f) and § 12-19-19(c).
- No felony can be placed on file: § 12-10-12.
- Sealing for cases that did not end in conviction: § 12-1-12.1.
